Bleary eyed, we piled in the car at 430am and headed to the airport as we were intent on getting through middle America ahead of the developing storms. We pressed on through 40-60kt headwinds the entire way to Santa Fe, which was our destination for the day. It was a long brutal day of flying about 10 hours against the slightly choppy air. About half way we lost the roll axis on our autopilot, which added to the workload. We stopped for fuel at TradeWind (KTDW), near Amarillo, TX and I just barely was able to land it as we had 90 degree crosswinds that were 28kt gusting 36kt. We originally had picked a better runway but upon arriving it looked like grass or at least in really rough shape, but in hindsight we should have just landed on it as it would have been much better than the rodeo landing we did. We enjoyed a really nice lunch on the field at Shelby's Diner and we relaxed in the pilot lounge for about 3 hours to let the winds and our nerves die down a bit. We set off for Santa Fe, NM and the 2 hour leg there seemed easy comparatively. It turned out that later that afternoon some severe tornados happened right where we crossed through!
Saturday morning after a great nights rest at the Hyatt hotel we headed to Meof Wolf, which is a trippy artsy fun experience. We had visited the one in Denver and were excited to checkout the original in Santa Fe. Its really awesome and I love Meow Wolf! We departed Santa Fe and headed to Tucson to arrive just in time for a family gathering.
Sunday a bunch of family headed south near the border to Parker Canyon Lake. We had rented the group site and had a nice huge camping area all to ourselves where we enjoyed campfires, walks around the lake, food, games and fun. Lucy caught a trout and we cooked it up and it was delicious! I brought with me a KFC fire log, which boasts 11 herbs and spices, which was a hilarious addition to our campfire one evening. We had fun throwing a baseball and football around and Lucy even surprised me with her decent arm. 
Dynon shipped me a new shear screw, which I used to repair the auto pilot servo on a really beautiful cool morning on Thursday. We hung out with the family more throughout the week doing various things like the UofA planetarium, the Tucson Miniature Museum, roller skating, and etc. Sunday we got an early start at the airport around 6am. The flight home was smooth and easy, yet slightly irritating given the probably average 10kt tailwinds. I was hopeful that having suffered 50kt headwinds the entire way that we could have something more sporty going home, oh well. We stopped for a quick fuel/food break in Graham, TX (KRPH) where we saw a really neat gyrocopter thingy doing some touch and goes. Lucy collected wild flowers and then we set off for the final leg home in nice beautiful weather. 
